Tactile
by alayneni
Summary: Felicity realised early into her relationship with Oliver that he was a very tactile person.


**Tactile**

Summary: Felicity realised early into her relationship with Oliver that he was a very tactile person.

An: I do not own Arrow

Oliver was watching pro-wrestling on the sofa. Felicity was seated on his lap with her legs perpendicular to his and her face buried in his chest. The sound of his steady heartbeat had caused her to drift off to sleep. His hands were wrapped around her, his right thumb absently rubbing circles on her thigh. He was warm and cozy as Felicity had a blanket wrapped around them. Oliver was home relatively early from patrolling but he couldn't sleep. Felicity sensing this had turned on the television to a recap of a live wrestling match that had showed earlier in the week. She knew Oliver enjoyed watching it.

Oliver could have had a little fun with Felicity to exhaust himself but he knew his wife was tired and her brain needed rest. He knew her brain functioned at its optimum when Felicity was well rested. An outsider probably couldn't tell since Felicity's brain always seemed to be firing on all pistons but after living with her for so long he could see the difference between a fully rested Felicity and a tired Felicity. A tired Felicity lost focus much easier and would take longer to reach to a conclusion which could be detrimental on missions, so Oliver personally ensured she got the rest she required.

A particular interesting fight was going on and one of the competitors pulled off an awesome move and Oliver reacted with enthusiasm only to cause Felicity to stir.

"Sorry love, go back to sleep," he said.

"mmms'ok," his wife said sleepily, "I was just resting my eyes."

Oliver chuckled at his wife. She was always so stubborn.

"I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from enjoying the match," Felicity said as she tried to shift to get off of her husband but his arms kept her securely in place.

"No, I'm enjoying it just fine. I get to enjoy my wife and the match at the same time." Oliver said with a large smile.

Felicity laughed and looked at the screen.

"Who's the guy in the black suit with a star?" she asked.

"A wrestler," Oliver responded to irritate her.

"I know that!" she snapped, "You look like you can totally kick his ass,"

"I totally could!" Oliver responded with the dopey smile he reserved for Felicity only.

A shirtless wrestler came out next to wrestle the guy in the black suit, "Whoa, that's a lot of abs!" his wife commented.

Oliver grumbled and she reached up and kissed his cheek, "You're still my favourite guy."

"I better be," he replied.

Felicity ran her nails down his bare chest, "I can assure you only your abs get this treatment."

Oliver growled, "Don't start something you know you can't finish"

Felicity arched her eyebrow at him but then the reason they wouldn't be able to finish started crying softly over the baby monitor.

"I'll get him," Felicity said softly.

"I can get him for you." Oliver offered.

"It's ok. You don't get to watch any tv. Relax and enjoy your match. It's just feeding time. I can't wait till he starts sleeping through the night." Felicity said.

Felicity disappeared down a corridor to where the nursery was and Oliver looked back at the match but it no longer held his attention. He missed his wife and if his son was awake that meant he could get to hold him and kiss him goodnight without the fear of waking him. He switched off the television and followed in Felicity's footsteps. He found her nursing their son on the rocking chair. The moonlight shone in through the window and she looked like an angel. Her hair was no longer blonde. She had had to stop dying it during her pregnancy but Oliver had really liked her natural hair colour so she hadn't started back dying it.

"Wrestling finished?" she asked confused. She knew the show usually went on for at least two hours.

"Nah, I had something better to do with my time," he said smiling at her.

Felicity returned his smile. She had always understood him perfectly. Oliver was a tactile person. He was good with his hands and touch was his way of knowing things were ok. If he couldn't touch something, then it wasn't real to him. Their relationship was full of touches and she knew each one had a different meaning. There was the elbow touch, the shoulder touch, the touch on her arm, and a whole host of others. The pressure and location of the touch spoke volumes to her about Oliver's mood and what he was feeling.

As soon as she was finished feeding him she handed him to Oliver. "You can burp him and put him back to sleep. Do you want the chair?"

"No," he said taking him from her easily. He immediately started to rub his son's back. Oliver cherished the time he got to spend with his family. Knowing that he lived a high risk life made him appreciate the normal moments with his family. Soon his son was fast asleep and he placed him in the crib. Felicity joined him at the side of the crib, looping her arm through his and leaning her head against his arm as they stared at their sleeping son.

"I still can't believe we made something so precious," She said to him.

"I still can't believe this is not a dream," Oliver responded. "Ow, what did you do that for?" he asked his wife who had pinched him on his side.

"To prove to you it isn't a dream," she said cheekily.

Before Oliver could respond, a soft knocking down the corridor at their bedroom door drew their attention.

"Felicity," a soft voice was calling.

She sighed, "He must have had another bad dream,"

Oliver nodded and he made his way out of the nursery while Felicity doubled checked that everything was ok and that the baby monitor was still on.

"Hey bud," he said to his 8 year old son that was standing outside their door.

"Daddy," his son said his face lighting up. "You're alive!"

Oliver walked over to his son and easily scooped him up despite his size. The tear steaks were very visible on his son's face.

"Of course I'm alive bud. Now let's get you back to bed. Felicity will join us in a moment." He walked into his son's room placed him on his king size bed and pulled the covers over them.

"Connor," Felicity's soft voice drifted in from the doorway.

"Stay with me tonight please," Connor asked. That was why Connor had a king size bed. His mother had been killed in a daring robbery right in front of his eyes. It had been very traumatic for him and he had had nightmares every night for the first three months after he had come to live with Oliver and Felicity. It required at least one of them to stay with him and comfort him until he fell back to sleep. The nightmares had steadily reduced but they also changed to revolve around the death of either Felicity or him. He was guessing tonight's nightmare was about him.

Felicity walked over, stopping at the dresser to place the baby monitor, before she lay down on the other side of Connor and dropped a kiss on his forehead, "You're safe here. Do you want to talk about it sweety?"

Connor shook his head in the negative but then immediately started telling her that the bad men had killed Oliver. Felicity took Connor's hand and placed it in Oliver's hand and she squeezed them.

"You feel that sweety? We are both alive." She said. She knew Connor like his father was also a tactile person and touch comforted him more than any words.

Connor closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep. When Connor had first come to live with them Oliver had been angry at what his mother did, then he had been angry that he hadn't gotten to spend time with Connor when he was growing up, then it shifted again to the people that killed Connor's mother. His son had learned at a young age that people could suddenly been torn away from you without any warning. It had caused his son to doubt his stability and Oliver had forked out plenty of money on an expensive therapist for Connor. It turned out, like the rest of the members of the Queen family, that Felicity had been more successful at getting Connor to open up and heal than the actual therapist.

Felicity had downloaded practically every book on child trauma and she read them in between meetings and missions. She had been terrified that she might accidentally babble something that might cause permanent harm to Connor and she didn't want to undo any progress the therapist was making with him. Oliver had realised the progress his son was making was due to his wife and wanted to fire the therapist but Felicity had insisted that Connor needed professional help and not someone who had only read the books with no practical experience whatsoever. That all changed the day that Felicity picked up Connor and the therapist had asked to speak with Felicity. The therapist had been concerned that Oliver's late nights was a sign of cheating and that was having an effect on Connor since he was in an unstable home. Oliver didn't know exactly what happened, Felicity wouldn't tell him what she said and Connor's only comment was that Felicity said they won't going back there, EVER and he was fine with that.

Oliver looked across at Felicity but she had fallen to sleep. A soft knock on the door and a second later Thea poked her head in, "Room for one more?" she asked.

"Yeah, come on in," he said. Thea had bonded with both her nephews and she had her own room in the house in case she wanted to spend nights. The Arrow base was actually in the basement. It made it easy for them to operate and monitor the children at the same time. There was also a bedroom dedicated to Sara in case both Diggle and Lyla had to go out into the field.

"Rough night?" Oliver asked. Both his sister and Diggle hadn't come in from patrol when they he had arrived and Laurel had volunteered to monitor the comms so that he and Felicity could get some alone time.

"Yeah, there was a bad accident and a kid died. He reminded me of Connor. It just made me want to hug my nephew," She said. Oliver understood the feeling. Seeing all the bad in Starling City really made you appreciate the good that you had.

Oliver moved from Connor's side to snuggle into Felicity and Thea took his previous position.

Connor awoke the next morning snuggled between his aunt and his step mom. His father was sitting up against the headboard playing with his baby brother. It was moments like that, that made the nightmares fade far into the recesses of his mind. He would always miss his mother but he was a big brother now and he had a new mom, a father and an aunt; he had never felt safer.


End file.
